Did You Know...

Yesterday there was another White House document dump regarding Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing just after the 2010 elections. While Solyndra is the crown jewel in the Department of Energy’s “you can’t make a green omelette without breaking a few hundred million taxpayer eggs” trial-and-error initiative, there are many other examples.

CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson — who was one of the first reporters on the Solyndra trail — featured 11 other DoE loan recipients that either have or probably will take a Solyndra-style plunge and suck down $6.5 billion of taxpayer loans with them.

The DoE isn’t playing with their own money, so no credit risk is too great:

In the case of Beacon Power, even if the company ended up receiving the DOE loan guarantee, Standard and Poor’s analysis indicated it still wouldn’t be a smart investment. The credit agency’s ratings services division assigned Beacon Power a “CCC+” Final Rating.

Standard and Poor’s defines a “CCC” rating as “currently vulnerable” and “dependent upon favorable business, financial, and economic conditions to meet its financial requirements.”

Somebody needs to scrutinize the rigor in the Department of Energy’s process of rigorous scrutiny. Or maybe insisting that DoE officials must invest a dollar of their own money in these projects for every thousand dollars of taxpayer money would help tighten the vetting process.

Final note: Not every Solyndra employee lost his or her job. There are still 84 people working there — a couple dozen of which might even receive bonuses this year.